Beltran’s Value To Rise

Fantasy analysts agreed: Beltran’s days as a base stealer were nearing their end. But, stolen bases are very dependent on both the player’s will and the manager’s desire.

As Beltran aged, he ran less. This helped him maintain his league-leading stolen base percentage (among active players). The Mets’ Jerry Manuel essentially said screw that, ran damnit. So, to the liking of Beltran owners, you will likely have a 30/30 guy rather than 30/20.

Josh Hamilton has been dubbed “day-to-day” with knee inflammation. This is likely nothing. But it is exactly what I was talking about in an earlier column when I said we first need to see how a full season wears on hsi body before calling him a top 5 OFer.

King Felix, as most of you already know, left Monday’s game with a bum ankle thanks to Carlos Beltran. The good news for owners is that the injury is seeming less severe than what it looked like. Though with sprains it’s tough to tell for certain until the swell has fully set in (a few days), it looks like he’ll avoid the DL and be back on the mound in no time. Felix has been vocal about making his next start. I doubt he will, if for no other reason than the Mariners have no reason to take the risk and have him pitch. If you’re in a weekly league and need to set your roster now for his future start, and you can only pitch him or someone else, I’d go with that someone else.

Lastly, George Sherrill. Oh Georgy. I traded you and suggested everyone does the same. What have you done in return? Defy all odds. Well everyone, I still don’t believe Sherrill will last. Upgrade him at all costs. He has 26 saves and only 3 blown saves despite games like last night where he loads the bases with no outs and gets out of the jam. A closer with a 1.23 WHIP will run into these problems and not always find a way out. Also, just anecdotally, when I owned him it seemed as if he jammed himself like this when he had 2 or 3 run leads. Perhaps his approach is different when he has a cushion, or perhaps its just luck that will even itself out over time.

Either way, it was lucky the cameras were rolling for this hitter-pitcher match up. It’s quite something.